


Eyes That Saw

by UglyJackal



Series: Final Fantasy Shenanigans [7]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 13:31:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16018931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UglyJackal/pseuds/UglyJackal
Summary: He looked up to challenge Nidhogg with eyes that saw.





	Eyes That Saw

With the groan of a thousand gusts of wind, the white dragon collapsed on the ground, his brood-brother the colour of the night above him, five deathly claws piercing the scales at the back of his head. Nidhogg roared, celebrating his victory over the larger dragon.

Jack was shaking, holding onto Ronja’s arm. By the Twelve, what had they done? Almost single-handedly, they had brought about the fall of Ishgard, hand in hand with their own grisly demises.

‘Thine eye! What hast thou done?’ the dread wyrm screeched.

There, in Hraesvelgr’s left eye socket, was the empty darkness of a black hole. And then there, in front of Jack, Ronja, Zelda and the rest of their friends, was the burning gold eye that Hraesvelgr was missing. It burned like the sun and the miqo'te stepped towards it, its fiery tendrils wrapping around his arms and drawing him closer, as though it wanted a hug.

With each step he took, he felt his confidence grow, and his head raised up to meet the enraged gaze of Nidhogg.

He was vaguely aware of Ser Aymeric rushing to join the fight, only to be stopped by Zelda, who assured him that they would be fine and that if the lord commander died then Ishgard would truly crumble.

As he stepped closer to the eye, he saw a flickering of light in the right side of his vision, where it had been shrouded in a lonely darkness for the past year, since he had been stupid enough to stand in the way of an explosion back in the clutches of the Imperials. Curious, he pulled his eyepatch off of his head, that Zelda had kindly bought for him a few months after the incident.

Tears filled his eyes as he saw the mist clear.

The undergrowth had been cut away. Hraesvelgr’s eye, the ferocious sun that it was, had risen and banished the darkness, as it absorbed itself into his chest.

He looked up to challenge Nidhogg with eyes that saw.

Beside him, his friends and his most trusted allies raised their weapons, each of their hearts caressed by the hand of the great white dragon’s eye. Each of them more than ready to face the dread wyrm in a battle that would end the song of the war and take up a new melody.

And sing they did.

* * *

When the battle was done and the eyes of the black dragon were cast into the abyss, when Aymeric had met up with them again and hugged them each, when the war of a thousand years had come to an end, Jack flew towards the broken form of Hraesvelgr on the back of the father of dragons.

‘Well done, Warrior of Light,’ the great wyrm rumbled, as he staggered to his feet, ‘I hadst nay doubteth yond thee couldst defeat mine own brood-broth'r.’

‘I don’t think I could have done it without the gift of your eye,’ the miqo'te said with a smile, ‘it, uh… it gave me my sight back.’

‘I am not surprised, the eyes of a dragon art a most pow'rful thing forsooth,’ the white dragon said, his lips curled up in a dravanian smile, ‘if thee wisheth to keepeth thy sight, I shall not holdeth t 'gainst thee.’

Jack went quiet, pondering the decision that Hraesvelgr had offered him. While he thought, the much smaller Midgardsormr rubbed muzzles with his son.

‘No,’ he said. 

Hraesvelgr looked at him in curiosity. ‘I hadst bethought yond thee wouldst wanteth thy sight backeth.  What madeth thee decideth to giveth t up again?’

‘I have gotten so used to living with the dark that I think it would hurt to turn the light back on,’ Jack said, ‘and I could not allow another to live in that same darkness, not when he only recently regained his sight.’

‘Thou art selfless,’ the dragon of wind and ice said, ‘I admireth yond.’

Jack’s chest started to glow gold, as the swirling wind pulled the dragon’s eye from him. It manifested itself in front of him again, like it had before the final battle with Nidhogg, and Hraesvelgr moved his head towards it, as it settled back in his head where it belonged. And Jack was left with half of his vision once more. But as he fixed his eyepatch back over his eye, he smiled at the familiarity he felt in the mists of his blindness.

With a beat of his wings, Hraesvelgr lifted himself into the air. Jack mounted Midgardsormr and joined him.

‘Thou art welcometh to joineth me in the air whenev'r thee prithee, mortal, the skies art ours to claimeth,’ the great dragon roared over the sound of his wings.

Jack smiled and nodded to him. ‘Thank you, Hraesvelgr,’ he called, ‘for everything.’

As Midgardsormr’s claws tapped down on the stones again, the miqo'te watched the white dragon fly away, just as graceful as he was before he lost one of his wings, and he smiled, glad that he had found a friend in the old wyrm.

He turned back to meet his comrades, laughing as they flung their arms around him with the relief of being alive. He hugged them all back, thankful that he still had them to rely on, even when things looked bleak.

‘Thank you, guys,’ he said, smiling like a drunk.

Izabella snorted. ‘It was nothing, mate,’ she said, ‘we know that you’ll always need us to keep your sorry ass from kicking the bucket.’

Jack laughed. ‘Yeah, you’re probably right.’

There was no “probably” about it; he would always need his friends, whether that was to save his life or to keep him sane. And even if he didn’t have the knife-sharp vision that he had once had, it didn’t mean that he would be unable to repay the favour.


End file.
